Privacy Policy

Sentinay (“Sentinay”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) is a sole trader business operated by Tom Hardiman in the United Kingdom. We design, build and host websites for trades, home service businesses and construction firms.

This policy explains what we collect, why, and what you can do about it. We have tried to write it in plain English rather than legal boilerplate. If anything is unclear, email tom@sentinay.com and we will explain it.

We comply with the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

1. The Short Version

• If you ask for a free website, we collect your name, business name, email address and mobile number. That is all we ask for.
• We use it to build your preview, send it to you, and follow up about it.
• We look up publicly available information about your business - your Google listing, your social pages, your reviews - so that you do not have to send it to us.
• We do not sell your data, and we do not share it with anyone except the suppliers listed in section 6 who help us run the service.
• You can ask us to delete everything at any time and we will.

2. What We Collect

a) What you give us

When you request a free website preview, we ask for:

• Your name - so we know who we are talking to
• Your business name - so we can find your business and build the site
• Your email address - to send you the preview and a confirmation
• Your mobile number - so we can reach you about the build

If you book a call with us, our scheduling provider collects your name, email and the time you choose. If you email us, we hold that correspondence.

b) What we look up ourselves

Once you give us your business name, we research your business from publicly available sources so that you do not have to write us a brief. That typically means your Google Business Profile, your Facebook or Instagram page, your public reviews, and the services and areas you already advertise.

We only use information that is already published about your business, and we only use it to build your website. If you would rather we did not use something, tell us and we will take it off.

c) What we collect automatically

• Your IP address and browser information, recorded with your enquiry as a basic anti-abuse and security measure
• Advertising and analytics identifiers set by the Meta Pixel - see section 4 and our Cookie Policy

3. Why We Use It, and Our Lawful Basis

• To build and send you your free preview, and to provide the service if you go ahead. Lawful basis: taking steps at your request before entering a contract, and performance of a contract (Article 6(1)(b)).
• To follow up about a preview you asked for. Lawful basis: legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)) - you asked us to build you something and would reasonably expect us to come back to you about it. You can tell us to stop at any time.
• To keep our own records, invoice, and meet our accounting and tax obligations. Lawful basis: legal obligation (Article 6(1)(c)) and legitimate interests.
• To measure and improve our advertising. Lawful basis: consent (Article 6(1)(a)), which you give through the cookie banner and can withdraw at any time.
• To keep the site secure and prevent abuse. Lawful basis: legitimate interests.

We do not sell personal data, and we do not buy lists or send unsolicited marketing to people who have not contacted us.

4. Advertising and the Meta Pixel

We advertise on Facebook and Instagram. To understand which adverts lead to enquiries, our site uses the Meta Pixel, and our server sends Meta a matching record of the enquiry (Meta calls this the Conversions API).

Where that record includes your email address or phone number, it is hashed before it leaves our server - converted into an irreversible string - so that Meta can match it against an existing account without receiving the address or number itself. We also send your IP address and browser user agent, which Meta uses for the same matching purpose.

This only happens where you have accepted analytics and advertising cookies. You can decline or withdraw consent at any time through the cookie banner, and you can control ad personalisation in your Facebook or Instagram settings. Meta acts as an independent controller for the data it receives; see the Meta Privacy Policy.

5. How Long We Keep It

• If you become a customer: for as long as we are working together, and then for six years after our last invoice, which is the period HMRC requires business records to be kept.
• If you asked for a preview but did not go ahead: up to 24 months, then deleted. We keep it that long because trades often come back to us months later.
• Enquiries submitted through a website we host for a customer: these belong to that customer and are covered by their own retention decisions - see section 8.

You can ask us to delete your data sooner and we will, unless we are legally required to keep it.

6. Who We Share It With

We use the following suppliers to run the service. Each processes data on our instructions, and we do not permit any of them to sell it.

• Vercel - hosting for this website and the sites we build
• Supabase - the database that stores website requests
• Twilio - sends us a text message when an enquiry comes in
• Mailgun - sends your confirmation email and notifies us
• Calendly - booking calls, on our booking page only
• Meta - advertising measurement, as described in section 4

We may also share personal data with:

• Our accountant and, if ever needed, our legal advisers or insurers
• Authorities, where we are required to by law
• A buyer, if the business is ever sold, subject to confidentiality

7. Where Your Data Goes

We are based in the UK. Some of the suppliers above are based in the United States or store data outside the UK. Where personal data is transferred outside the UK, we rely on the safeguards those providers have in place - the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, or the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework where the provider is certified under it.

8. Enquiries Made Through a Website We Host

If you are a member of the public who has filled in a contact form on a trade's website that we host, your details belong to that business, not to us. They decide what to do with your enquiry; we simply pass it to them and keep the site running. In data protection terms they are the controller and we are their processor.

Please contact that business directly to exercise your rights over your enquiry. If you cannot reach them, email us at tom@sentinay.com and we will help you get to the right place. The commitments we make to our customers about handling this data are set out in section 4 of our Terms of Service.

9. Your Rights

Under the UK GDPR you have the right to:

• Ask what we hold about you and get a copy of it
• Have inaccurate or incomplete information corrected
• Have your data deleted
• Restrict how we use it, or object to us using it for our legitimate interests, including any marketing
• Receive your data in a portable, machine-readable format
• Withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on consent

To exercise any of these, email tom@sentinay.com. We will respond within one month. We may need to check who you are first. There is no charge.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, please tell us so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office:

• Website: ico.org.uk
• Address: Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
• Phone: 0303 123 1113

10. Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your information. Data is encrypted in transit, our database is access-controlled with credentials held only by us, and we limit what we collect in the first place - the less we hold, the less there is to lose.

Sentinay is a one-person business, so access to customer data is limited to Tom Hardiman and to the suppliers listed in section 6.

11. Automated Decision-Making

We do not make decisions about you by automated means that have a legal or similarly significant effect. Your website is designed and reviewed by a person.

12. Updates and Contact

We may update this policy. The “Last updated” date above shows when it last changed, and we will tell customers about any significant change.

Sentinay is operated as a sole trader by Tom Hardiman in the United Kingdom. For anything about this policy or your data, contact tom@sentinay.com.